Roland Emmerich and Sony Reteam for 'White House Down'

Sony paid $3 million for an action thriller penned by James Vanderbilt called White House Down a couple days ago and, according to Deadline, the studio already has someone in mind to direct it: Roland Emmerich.

This isn't the first time the director and the studio had worked together. Emmerich made his Hollywood debut with Sony's Universal Soldier in 1992, the sci-fi actioner starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren as reanimated super soldiers.

Emmerich followed that up with Godzilla (1998), The Patriot (2000), 2012 (2009), and, finally, Anonymous (2011) for Sony.

As for that last film, Anonymous, Sony didn't have confidence in it so it didn't get a wide release or much promotion, resulting in a worldwide box office take of $15 million. The budget for the movie is $30 million.

I guess when Emmerich said he wants to do an incendiary take on Shakespeare, Sony was expecting something more literal.

There won't be any miscommunication with White House Down though. The movie is described as Die Hard-esque and is about a terrorist group trying to take over the White House, so there ought to be amble opportunities for guns to be fired and for things to blow up.

And Emmerich won't be able refuse this assignment because he owed Sony for Anonymous and his sci-fi thriller Singularity is also with the studio. He will shoot that after he's done with White House Down.

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